a. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for manufacturing molded products from clods of clay or like kneadable material, each clod being more or less pre-formed and, optionally sprinkled with sand or similar material, the pre-formed clod being deposited at a particular velocity, into a waiting mold so that the clod substantially fills the mold.
B. Prior Art
It is known to manufacture handmade bricks by an exclusively manual process in which an operator throws a pre-formed and optionally sanded clod into a mold with a force based on experience. It has been proposed, when the manufacture by hand is partially or fully mechanized, to drop the clods into a mold from a particular height to be determined by experiment. However in the case of a free descent there is the risk that the pre-formed clod will not travel exactly vertically and land in the mold without contacting the walls of the mold.